Late Nights and Fairy Lights (Voltron Short Fanfiction)
by Waterheart9
Summary: When night terrors wake Shiro up late in the night, he gives Hunk a visit and they each learn a little bit about each other.


Word count: 1589

 _A distant shriek of terror. Powerful hands clutching his wrists. A helmet with a blacked-out visor being shoved onto his head, blocking out light and silencing the wail. Being dragged across a cold metal floor. An electrical stick being shoved into his abdomen. Screaming but not being able to hear the sound._

Shiro lurched up out of bed, shaking and sweating. He gripped his face with his prosthetic hand as if to reassure himself that the helmet was gone, that his captors were gone. He traced the scar on his nose with two shivering fingers and let out a sigh, leaning back against his headboard and closing his eyes.

 _It's over. I'm fine. Everything is fine. I'm safe._ The words he kept repeating to himself felt empty now, after being used so many times after awakening from nightmares. Shiro still felt scared, as if there were still soldiers waiting outside his door to torture him. In an attempt to calm down, the black Paladin quieted his breathing and listened.

He was greeted with silence. Hunk wasn't making breakfast in the kitchen. The mice weren't squeaking and bouncing through the halls. Not even Pidge could be heard typing at her computer like she usually did early in the morning. So it must not have been that long since Shiro had last gone to bed. Everyone was still asleep.

With a frustrated sigh, he rolled to his feet and shook off his blanket, knowing he would never get back to sleep. Perhaps a short walk would calm his nerves. The automatic door to his bedroom raised and Shiro peeked his head out. The hallway was completely dark, save for a warm yellow light seeping from a few doors down.

The black paladin tiptoed down the hall, straightening his pajama shirt and unconsciously holding his breath as if he might wake someone up by exhaling. As he approached, he realized the glow was coming from Hunk's room. So he _was_ still awake.

Shiro gave the door a gentle knock without quite realizing what he was doing. No one responded at first, but he could hear the sudden frantic shuffling of papers, followed by a thud and a whispered "ouch" as Hunk fell off his bed. The door opened with a _whoosh_ and the yellow paladin greeted Shiro on the other side of the threshold.

"Oh, hey Shiro...what are you doing up?"

Shiro stared dumbly back at him, unprepared to start a conversation. He gave a cough and attempted to compose himself.

"I uh...couldn't sleep...thought I'd take a walk and saw the light from your room…" Hunk raised an eyebrow suspiciously, and the black paladin knew he could tell he hadn't told the whole truth. Rather than forcing Shiro to explain himself, however, Hunk simply stepped aside, allowing him to enter his room.

Shiro had seen Hunk's room before, back when they had first moved into the Castle of Lions, and it hadn't been anything to behold. It had been mainly empty, save for a few little Knick knacks and souvenirs from different planets. Now, however, the room was warmly lit by the soft yellow glow of hand-made fairy lights and paper lanterns, and a desk had been pushed to the corner.

Hunk's Knick-knack collection had expanded to include a variety of canned alien spices, some thank-you cards written by children, and several other random appreciation gifts. However, it was a box full of neatly-organized files that caught Shiro's attention. Each file had a colorful tab with a name on it, yet the black paladin only recognized one. Hunk went to stop him from looking at the file, but he was too slow.

"Hey, isn't this the character you made when we played Monsters and Mana with Coran?" Shiro asked, skimming through several papers describing different aspects and traits. "You really put a lot of thought into this guy." The yellow paladin blushed.

"Well...when I made him I really liked his design and story, so I decided to round him out a bit more and then I started thinking about his past and all this stuff so I wrote that down too...and before I knew it I was creating other characters and had an entire plot set up…" Hunk trailed off, suddenly realizing that he was rambling.

Shiro closed the file and put it back in its slot, picking through the other ones until he came to a file thicker than all the others. The tab read "rough draft" and he pulled it out, eyes widening as he flipped through hundreds of pages of text.

"Wow Hunk...it looks like you have an entire book here…maybe more! You wrote all of this?" Shiro asked in amazement.

"Uh, yeah…"

"Hey, my character is in here! And so is everyone else's!"

"Yeah, I liked the designs you guys came up with too so I decided to add them to my story…"

"How long did it take you to come up with all this?"

"Well, I thought of my character and started writing his story before we even left Earth...I've just added onto it recently."

Shiro smiled gleefully, but then his face fell when he turned to look at Hunk. He was staring at the floor, and he had begun rubbing his arm as if he were ashamed. The black paladin looked down at the file in his hands and a wave of understanding hit him.

"Hunk...I'm sorry. I shouldn't just nose through your stuff like that without asking. These files are probably personal…" He quickly slipped the file back into its spot. Hunk's gaze lifted from the floor.

"No, it's ok, it's just...no one's ever read my story before...except my mom...I've been writing stories for a while but I guess I'm just too self-conscious about my own abilities to share them, ya know? Like, sure, my mom _says_ that my writing is good, but how do I know she's not just saying that to make me feel important?" the yellow paladin burst, the distress in his tone suddenly more apparent.

Shiro stared blankly at him a moment, caught off guard by the sudden unhappiness of his friend. Even Hunk seemed surprised by his outburst.

"I mean-I didn't-I'm sorry, it's not your problem to worry about. It's no big deal, you can read it if you really want to-" Shiro walked around Hunk quietly and sat down on top of his bed. In that moment he made the conclusion that if he was to learn something personal about his teammate, the least he could do was share his own private matters. He gave a deep sigh.

"I didn't tell you earlier why I couldn't sleep."

"Uh, no. I guess you didn't. What's your point?"

"I had a nightmare. About my time as a prisoner of the Galra."

Hunk nodded slowly and sat on the bed next to his leader, staring at him as he listened intently. He seemed to have forgotten his moment of sadness completely. Shiro went on.

"I was tortured all the time in a lot of different ways during my time there...in my dream they put a helmet on me that blocked out all the noise and light around me, and then they hit me with a big stick that shocked me every time it...made contact with me."

Shiro began to choke on his words a bit now, and he could no longer speak smoothly, despite his best efforts.

"I tried-I tried to scream, b-but I couldn't hear myself. It was horrible, and I-and that's not even the worst dream I've had, they keep coming, and I'm...Hunk, I'm s-so tired…" Though no tears fell from his face, the black paladin was clearly tearing himself apart. His face contorted as if he were in pain and his human hand had started to shake.

Suddenly there was a big hand rubbing circles on his back and Shiro felt his breathing slow just a little bit.

"I'm sorry, Shiro. I can't even begin to understand what you went through when you were there. I'm not a great therapist, but I might have something to help-" The yellow paladin bent forward and reached under his bed, pulling out something small and soft. As Shiro got a better look at it, he realized it was a plush version of some colorful alien he had never seen before with tiny felt claws and a fuzzy blue body.

"When we freed that one planet with the bird people, they gave me this. It's stuffing has a bunch of special herbs and spices mixed into it that are supposed to help soothe anxiety and stress when you smell them. I use it whenever I have a rough day but it seems like you could use it more than me…" Hunk handed over the stuffed creature.

Shiro hesitantly lifted it to his face and breathed in a sweet, fruity smell that made him feel warm inside. It really did make him feel better, if only a little bit.

"Thanks Hunk, I really appreciate it. Are you sure?"

He nodded. "As long as you bring it back eventually and make sure it doesn't get any stains or tears."

Later that night, Shiro went back to bed, new stuffed companion tucked close to his chest. That was the first night he had ever gotten a peaceful night of sleep in a very, very long time, and for the first time he dreamt about the warm, smiling faces of his new family.


End file.
